Hi
Just wanted to say thanks to FiveNotions for my welcome message, it gave me the motivation to actually write this post!
I discovered this website on Sunday 5th October 2014 and I can honestly say I had tears in my eyes reading some of the stories... It was sheer relief and confirmed that I was not actually going crazy on the 3 attempts that I had tried to wean off Cymbalta. I had never heard of brain zaps until I discovered this site but I knew exactly what this meant as I had experienced them alongwith a number of the other unpleasant withdrawal symptoms.
To explain I am 38 years old and have been on Cymbalta for at least 3+ years (exact time unknown as I was on other AntiDs before this). I was put on Cymbalta 120mg for both depression and nerve pain (prolapse disc in back).
In July 2011 just after getting married myself and my husband decided we would like to try for another baby. However I was advised by my Doctor that I would need to come off Cymbalta before I became pregnant as it could be dangerous. Therefore this was and still is the reason I want to so desperately get off this awful drug!! I immediately started to reduce my dose with the help of my doctor, the recommendation was to alternate the dose from 120mg to 90mg each day (IE 120 / 90 / 120 / 90) then to drop to 90mg each day then to alternate again from 90mg to 60mg each day etc etc. I did this all to quickly and soon hit the floor with a bang! I ended up back on full dose and back to square one... To cut a long story short I attempted another 2 times to wean off the drug only to fail again each time. The last time I was worse than ever and the thoughts of ever trying again scared me to death!
However after discovering this website I am hopeful again that I will this time succeed in getting off this drug. I am currently on 90mg (1 x 60mg capsule and 1 x 30mg capsule). I have been on this dosage coming up to a year and have been stable.
Being over excited at the prospect of bead counting and finally being Cymbalta free I got straight down to counting the number of beads in my 30mg capsule on the Sunday evening!! Confirming 270 beads so 9 beads equaling 1mg... After discussing it with my husband I decided my plan was to drop 1mg a day (9 beads a day) so:-
Monday 6th October I took my full dose of 90mg
Tuesday 7th October I reduced my dose to 89mg (removing 9 beads)
Wednesday 8th October I reduced my dose to 88mg (removing 18 beads) - After a late night chatting it over with a close friend I decided I would stay on each reduced dose for 3 days as it all seemed a bit fast!
Thursday 9th October stayed on 88mg
Friday 10th October stayed on 88mg
Saturday 11th October reduced dose to 87mg (removing 27 beads)
Sunday 12th October stayed on 87mg
On Sunday evening I got an awful headache and felt sickly, I put it down to being overtired and went to bed extra early with painkillers! I woke Monday morning feeling just the same and my stomach was starting to feel unsettled. I thought I was coming down with some type of bug. However the headache is still with me 3 days on and not showing any signs of getting better although my stomach seems ok again (although I didnt actually get sick at any point).
I am now starting to think this could be the first signs of withdrawal... What are your thoughts? Could it really have an effect that quick and on such a low reduction? Or did I take things to fast altogether? After reading a new link on here just today I can see someone has done a plan for reducing the overall full dosage by 5% over a period of a month. Is that the better way to do it... I think I probably already know the answer to that question but that means it would take me 20 months to get off the Cymbalta altogether
Needless to say I have remained on the 87mg since to see if the headache gets better. I dont really want to increase my dose again if possible but am open to suggestions.
Apologies for the long essay but I felt I needed to explain myself properly to get the best advice.
Thanks so much...